Ballet dancers number walls and corners in the ballet room (from point 1 to point 8), with point 1 facing forward towards the audience. When we face the front, point 8 is on our left side and points towards the front left corner of the room.
Point 2 is on the right side and points towards the front right corner of the room. We rotate the body to point 2 and the head to point 8. The right leg is the standing one. The dancer may touch the floor with their entire foot, that is, the foot is flat on the floor. It may be demi-pointe, which is like being on tip-toe, or it may be fully en pointe. Ballet dancers use special shoes, called pointe shoes, which have a flat, hard box at the tip of the shoe. When the ballet dancer stands on the box, she is standing on the ends or the tips of her toes, which is why this technique is called “on the points”.
The left leg is the working one. We turn the working leg to the side at a 90 degree angle. If there were a wall behind us, the foot would touch it.
We put the right arm in the second position, while gently bending the elbow and move it to point 2. We must hold it at such a height that if we had a drop on our shoulder it would run perfectly down to our index finger. We have the left arm above our head in the third position, as if holding a balloon.
Our gaze moves to point 2 towards the fingers.